Safe Harbour

Sophie, 12, and her brother Hugh, seven, are left homeless and parentless when their house is bombed during the London Blitz. Their father is away fighting in the navy and their mother is seriously injured in the bomb blast. There is no option for the children other than a visit to their paternal grandfather who lives in Co. Wicklow in Ireland, whom they have never met. Following an uncomfortable journey on a train full of evacuees to Wales, and then on the boat to Dun Laoghaire, they find their apprehensions about Grandfather are confirmed. Professor Fitzpatrick is indeed an austere and patrician figure, but, somewhat predictably, as the story unfolds they discover that there is a reason for Grandfather's chilly behaviour towards them. The sights, sounds and smells of London during the Blitz are vividly captured, as are the scenes of bewilderment felt by the evacuees and their red-eyed parents as the train leaves Euston Station. The main characters are somewhat stereotypical, but Safe Harbour's strength lies in its evocation of this period of English and Irish history. It would provide good support to a study of World War Two.